Nat'l terror center head quits for health

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- The head of the U.S. National Counter-Terrorism Center has stepped down, saying he has health problems and wants to spend more time with his family.

"The time has come for me to go ashore," retired Vice Adm. Scott Redd said in a note to his "shipmates" at the center Wednesday.

"The simple fact is I need to take care of some long-delayed surgery that I can no longer neglect," wrote Redd. "I also look forward to spending more time with my family, especially our five grandchildren."

He said he would leave effective Nov. 10.

A note from center spokesman Carl Kropf added that the 63-year-old Redd needs total replacement surgery on both knees, "a process which -- combined with a long rehabilitation period -- would require a prolonged absence from his duties as director."

Kropf said Mr. Michael Leiter, the current deputy director, would serve in Redd's place until a replacement was named.

Redd, the former staff director for the president's commission on intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, replaced the center's founding director, John Brennan, in 2005.